I want to share with you all the memory of my friend who was taken too young, because losing someone to chronic illness and/or disease is never easy nor fair. We mourn, we hurt, we cry, we curse, we remember. It all happens at once, a flood of emotions, memories of joy, and the pain of loss.
Kade Bell was one of my best friends growing up and was one of the few people I ever stayed connected with later in life. Never did we judge one another. We weren’t always the best of friends mind you. The first memory I have of Kade is fighting with him in preschool. I think I was in an argument with his cousin and he stepped in to handle it. Kade was always a fighter for those he loved and would do anything for his family and friends.
He loved football and basketball, and he had the best post-up game of anyone ever from the small community we grew up in. He was also one of the best football players to ever play for our small school. He was a leader, a captain, and a friend. He stayed my friend even when I had started dialysis and was dealing with so much that I was spiraling into my own personal hell. He never judged me, and when it seemed that everything had turned against me, he very obviously had not. He was always a friend. He loved being outdoors doing anything and everything under the sun, especially hunting. Almost every picture I saw of him was outdoors with his family or friends doing what he loved the most.
And even when Kade was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer he was still a leader, a captain, and a friend. I hadn’t kept in touch with Kade for a few years, but we were always friends and when I reached out to him to support him and let him know that I was there for him he was positive. He was positive in the face of cancer, and he knew he was going to beat it. He was making plans for the future, and he was going to be involved in my company’s photo shoot for chronic illness patients. Even when he was feeling like crap he wanted to help me out because that was the kind of person he was. And just like Kade helped shape my past he will continue to shape my future because of his memory, his leadership, his friendship, and his spirit that has touched so many across this world. I’m proud to call him my friend and I’m honored to have experienced this life with him, and I want to share his spirit with you all and let you all know that it is because of his fight that I will continue, and I hope you will too. Rest my friend, until we meet again.
Kade Bell, December 26, 1989—March 4, 2019
By: Dax Francis, Founder
